An SR Miracle

[Butch Miller]

I have had a blade SR on the shelf for a couple years waiting for repairs. I have thought several times it would be nice to make it FBL. I was at a hobby shop asking about parts and they said it shared a lot of parts with the 230s. I bought the pre-assembled head, swash-plate and installed a 3gx FBL unit I had laying around and guess what. I test flew it last night and it was pretty good. All I was able to do was run two packs thru it and get the tail dialed in but so far it's seams to be flying pretty good.

[nighttrain06]

It used the stock brushed tail? Or did you convert the tail to BL also?
A 3GX huh? I didn't know if anything flew with those on em!

[Butch Miller]

I was wanting to keep it cheap so I used the stock tail motor. It took two flights to get the tail from waging. I ended up setting the tail gyro to 100% to get it to stop. My batterys were three years old so it was really under powered. I still need to work on the settings. Yes, I have had good luck with 3gx gyro's.

[nighttrain06]

That's something for sure, so you just plugged the tail motor up to the stock ESC and ran with it huh? The tail behaves well and everything too huh?
I'm wondering though if the tail will hold if you had stronger batteries?
That's very promising news! I have 2 SR's and the little buggers one day fly good, the next well the tail whips all over heck!
Shoot from pack to pack they can act different, last time I flew one of em it flew really well. Changed the battery and then it was all over the place!

I've never used a 3GX before, just heard horror stories about em....but I've heard others like you that said they work fine.
I have the 230S, and love that little heli, but still look at my poor SR's and hope for a decent fix for the poor things!
You just might have breathed new live into the old birds!
I wonder if some other FBL unit might work with it?
Or do you think the 3GX has something specific to the tail setup that makes it different from others?

[Butch Miller]

I was pleasantly surprised the tail motor worked.and I do remember the tail changing during the flight as the battery ran down when I use to fly it. I will need to fly it more to what happens. I would think other FBI units will work.

[heinz9]

I've got an old SR that I bought used. I've put a lot of time and money into it and it still won't fly. Probably my programming on my RX tho.
The SR shares the 200 srx tail motor I believe and battery size. Part compatability with the 200 srx and 230s were some of the reasons I bought both helis. Haven't touched my SR after buying those helis. I probably will someday when time permits.

[nighttrain06]

Well since the head assembly if nothing else I can use for the 230s I have already, I suppose I'll give it a try.
What did you do about the tail setup that's usually in the programming phase of these FBL units? How did you set up trims and end point adjustments in the program? Since there really are no adjustments with an electric tail. Also did you leave yellow wire in or out?

[nighttrain06]

Originally Posted by heinz9

I've got an old SR that I bought used. I've put a lot of time and money into it and it still won't fly. Probably my programming on my RX tho.
The SR shares the 200 srx tail motor I believe and battery size. Part compatability with the 200 srx and 230s were some of the reasons I bought both helis. Haven't touched my SR after buying those helis. I probably will someday when time permits.

The one thing I have learned with the SR after it being my first CP bird, and many many crash/repairs is set up set up setup! Be prepared to fly the tail also like a heli in rate mode!

[Butch Miller]

I didn't use the yellow wire. I had the rudder trim set to 0. Setting the end points was kind by the seat of my pants. I held it to the right a little then to the left a little and for some reason it seemed happy with that.

[nighttrain06]

Originally Posted by Butch Miller

I didn't use the yellow wire. I had the rudder trim set to 0. Setting the end points was kind by the seat of my pants. I held it to the right a little then to the left a little and for some reason it seemed happy with that.

Lol, well I'll be dang!
Wonder if the yellow wire would help or hurt it any?
I've thought about doing what you did, but figured the tail would be too unpredictable for any kind of flight outta it.
Have you actually flown it or just hovered it in place?

[Butch Miller]

So far just hovering. I flew it a little but I was in a front of my house with cars around and I didn't trust it too much. I hope to play around with it more this weekend

[nighttrain06]

I understand that, I banged a heli into my wife's new car one day testing it,
and doing things I shouldn't when it got away from me and hit the top half of her car.......I was shocked that there was just a very small ding on the roof is all it did....well glad that there was anyway....running a 450 size heli into it I thought it woulda done a lot more because it hit at a pretty good clip!

[Butch Miller]

Well, it's not a 450. Out of the 6 battery packs I have only two are good. I really abused them when I started. There was a lot of buzzing but the tail held pretty good until the end of the pack and it would start waging a little but not bad. The rudder held thru the flight. It seems really under powered. I would hate to try a loop with it. That may still be the remaining batterys are weak. I did some figure 8's any whipped it around a little and it seemed fine. I believe theSR has the same motor as a 230s. How does the power feel on a 230s?

[nighttrain06]

That's good news on the tail. It probably won't be a 3D bird, but sounds like it's a very manageable sport flier.
The 230s is a pretty nice bird, the power on it holds up to pretty good 3D flights, I haven't done any hard 3D with mine, it was given to me by a good friend so I'll never be flying it too hard to risk anything with it. But it seems to have ample power to do most anything.
I wonder if your ESC might possibly be weak, or maybe the motor?
My two SR's seem to have plenty of power. It's hard to say, seems those EFlite packs were hit and miss too with those...

[Butch Miller]

The SR has an 7 a. ESC. Do you know what size the ESC is on a 230s?

[nighttrain06]

I'm not sure to tell the truth, I suppose you could take the whole tail section and ESC an put it on the SR frame, but then your getting into the area of just might as well buy a 230s then. There have been those who have converted the SR to a brushless tail motor using dual esc's back in the day.
But for some reason it didn't catch on or the parts became unavailable.
I wouldn't think you'd need a different ESC since your running stock motors on it. I'd try a good pack first, then a different ESC or motor if it continues to seem week.

[Butch Miller]

I have always been careful about spending to much on the SR. The only reason I have gone this far is because it's the only helicopter I have that wasn't flyable. That said I have been thinking about getting the night 230s. How does your's fly and how does it crash?

[nighttrain06]

My 230 flies super nice, it did straight out of the box! The only issue with it is when I am taking off and landing it wants to tip just before take off, and right at landing. Supposed to be a update to correct that but, all I do is just give it just a tad stick correction on liftoff, and just pop TH upon landing.
Once flying it's super stable. As far as crashes, don't know, I just fly circuits and don't push it real hard, so I have not experienced a crash with it.
Am sure it holds up like an SR, but slightly better though, they share a few components, main gear, (probably tail booms with a little modification I'm sure) skids, frames are almost identical except canopy mounting mounts are positioned different. It's basically a much improved FBL SR.

[tony#1]

Originally Posted by nighttrain06

My 230 flies super nice, it did straight out of the box! The only issue with it is when I am taking off and landing it wants to tip just before take off, and right at landing. Supposed to be a update to correct that but, all I do is just give it just a tad stick correction on liftoff, and just pop TH upon landing.
Once flying it's super stable. As far as crashes, don't know, I just fly circuits and don't push it real hard, so I have not experienced a crash with it.
Am sure it holds up like an SR, but slightly better though, they share a few components, main gear, (probably tail booms with a little modification I'm sure) skids, frames are almost identical except canopy mounting mounts are positioned different. It's basically a much improved FBL SR.

According to the 230S manual it shares the following with the Blade SR:
Part # 24 EFLH1509 BLADE Main Gear :BSR
25 1502 Landing Gear :BSR
26 1516 3900kV Brushless Motor :BSR

It also shares a few head parts with the Blade 300X parts # 20 through 23 and 27 as listed in the 230S manual. The :BSR at the end of the description column is the giveaway.
I am not sure if the SR and 230S servos are interchangeable.

[nighttrain06]

Originally Posted by tony#1

According to the 230S manual it shares the following with the Blade SR:
Part # 24 EFLH1509 BLADE Main Gear :BSR
25 1502 Landing Gear :BSR
26 1516 3900kV Brushless Motor :BSR

It also shares a few head parts with the Blade 300X parts # 20 through 23 and 27 as listed in the 230S manual. The :BSR at the end of the description column is the giveaway.
I am not sure if the SR and 230S servos are interchangeable.

I figure they might work, the servo's that is. Probably have to do a little
filing to the frame, but that's it.
I guess the FBL controller wasn't a success, have not heard anything else.
I don't see how it could, but who knows....